Taryn Spencer is 23 years old. She graduated with a BA from Sam Houston State University. She writes poetry, fiction, and essays. Her favorite book is The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and her favorite singer is Billie Holiday. You can read more of her work at her web site. Taryn uses pacing and cadence to great effect in her poetry. This allows her images to transition fluidly as the reader absorbs her story.
Damn Syndrome
By Taryn Spencer
Expectations to leave soon out of luck
Into a world based off fictitious facts
Laid out like ten tiny dying whores on their backs
Coming down from highs or Fifth Avenue
Where everything damp happens vividly
Taking over the beauties of real lives
Like infested pavements on sole, Christmas
Tea brownish, greenish, hint of yellow blouse
Your wicked stepmother forced you to wear
Like one’s ethnicity announced at birth
Proudly, with a dignity that has yet
To be found by empty, nameless people
Whose creative moments came from life’s thrust
Of opportunity lying some somewhere,
Bare, waiting to be picked like a Berry
That first verse haunts me. I read it three times. great job.
particularly love that 4th stanza 🙂 strong word choices throughout!